Puzzle
by ooSuperBatGirloo
Summary: AU. The war is over and weddings abound, Luna reflects on her choices in life and how to piece together her future.


_Author's Note:_

_I have loved the Ron-Luna pairing since Luna was introduced!! This is just my way of showing how the war helped Ron mature into the man I think JKR was trying to turn him into but didn't quite get him there. _

_Mostly everyone is the property of JKR, I just wanted to borrow them for a bit! I can't promise that I'll return them the way I borrowed them though!!_

_I hope you enjoy the story!_

_ooSBGoo_

_P.S. If there is anything that needs editing, then please feel free to tell me, I think I've gotten everything straightened, but I know I could have always missed something!_

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She had her feet up on the coffee table, leaning her head over the impossibly red couch. The quibbler rested on top of her swollen belly as she stared at the ceiling. Closing her eyes, she made a wish for her husband to hurry home. He had been gone on a mission for three days now. A relatively short time for an Auror mission, but for a pregnant wife missing her husband, a day seemed too long.

She called for their house elf, Sippy, asking for a cup of tea, she sighed as the little elf popped away and came back with tea and a few lemon biscuits. Smiling a 'thanks', she went back to pondering her marriage. Staring at the cup of tea in her hands and fiddling with the engagement ring and the wedding band on her finger she thought back to their past.

Shortly after the downfall of Voldemort, Harry and Hermione had decided to get together, taking a few people by surprise, namely the Boy Who Lived groupies. Most thought they would end up with the youngest Weasley's and made that known. The younger Weasley's laughed and made it clear to the wizarding world, via The Quibbler, that if their friends found happiness with each other—nothing else mattered. Harry and Hermione decided to marry after five months of dating, but this time taking no one by surprise, not even the BWL groupies.

Ginny had started dating Neville, a blind date on both their parts, set up by their mutual friend Susan Bones. There was little to look forward to during the tumultuous year that brought the end of Voldemort, but Neville and Ginny had each other. They decided to get married right after Ginny's graduation, the date set for June tenth, six months before Harry and Hermione's wedding.

Harry had asked Remus, with Ron's blessings, to be his best man; while Hermione asked Ginny to be her maid of honor. Ron would be next, walking down the aisle with Luna as a bridesmaid. Neville and Tonks would close out the wedding party, hopefully keeping her steady as they walked towards the couple of the hour. Even though Remus and Ginny would be the two next most important people at the service, the others had their own weights to pull.

Neville was torn between keeping Tonks on her feet and Ginny's mood swings from being two months pregnant, apparently the Weasley-Longbottom women were prone to early mood swings. While Remus was running around making sure that all the Order members and Aurors that were available were securing the wedding, much as they had during Ginny and Neville's wedding. Much of this left Ron and Luna alone together. After the death of her father, she became more grounded, losing much of the dreamy effect in her eyes and voice. They spent many mornings together when the others would call on them, only to sit around and be ignored. There were many dinners where everyone would ignore their input and they would end up talking about Nargles and Crumpled Snorknacks, or even laugh as everyone stressed themselves out over the wedding. Whenever Ron would get a little down because he was no longer an integral part of the Golden Trio, Luna was there to cheer him up. She would be there when he was ignored and he was there for her when she felt she had no one left.

Spending so much time in the back ground together, they really surprised people when Ron proposed to Luna during Harry and Hermione's reception. She sighed a little more remembering his proposal.

_((Flashback))_

"…_And now, one third of the Golden Trio, best friend to the Bride and Groom, Ron Weasley!" Cheers went up as Kingsley Shaklebolt announced Ron's turn to come up for his speech. Luna gave his hand a little squeeze and a small smile, he let out a breath and wrung his hands together as he marched up to the stage and magnified his voice. Taking a deep breath, he began what would be the beginning of the happiest times in Luna's life._

"_Hey everybody… er…I'm sure you all know by now everything that the three of us have been through, which has been a lot together…We've been together for almost eight years, and during those eight years we had a lot of good times to counter the bad ones. There have been times where I have gone off on my own, leaving those two to fend for themselves, but luckily I came to my senses and came back to save their sorry butts," everyone had a good laugh there, taking another deep breath, he continued. "Harry and Hermione, you two are more than friends, more than family I would even say. You have been there for each other through thick and thin, and there aren't two people who I could think of that would be more perfect for each other than the two of you. Well, actually there are two people more perfect for each other," everyone gasped, some people even dropped their drinks. Harry and Hermione sat with shock frozen on their faces, their mouths gaping open. No one knew whether this was a joke constructed by the Weasley twins or if this was seriously. Ron shot an apologetic look towards his best friends, who finally shut their mouths and waited for him to proceed, after so long together he wouldn't purposely ruin something like this for them. _

"_Watching the two of you together, I realized that I want something like that, and I want it now. I know, I am a selfish man, interrupting my best friends' wedding reception to talk about me, but this feels right. After months of being put through of pre-wedding hell, what with the planning and the security and the guest list, oh the guest list; I have realized that there is no one else I would rather go through with this again than the woman I went through with this time. I don't know when it happened, Luna Lovegood, but you have stolen my heart like the Nargles that stole your shoes that one time at Hogwarts," he stepped down from the stage, ending the voice charm, but he kept speaking. "If these last few months with you were any indicator of what's to come, then I couldn't ask for a better future. Luna Lovegood, will you marry me?" He knelt in front of her, holding out a ring with the diamond shaped like a crescent moon. _

_She couldn't help but stare at him in surprise, for a moment she wondered if she was dreaming. She looked from him to the ring, then back to him, and slowly nodded. His smile grew big as he screamed "She said yes!" and everyone cheered as they shared their first kiss. _

_((End Flashback))_

That had been almost ten years, two and a half children, two changes in careers, one dog and one change in housing ago. Ron spent one year training to be on a national Quidditch team, but barely had any time to spend with his new wife, and quit. He joined the Auror forces, a year behind Harry, and they both rose in the ranks due to their abilities rather than their fame, mainly due to Kingsley Shakelbolt being the Minister of Magic and only allowing merit to advance. Luna had already taken full charge of the Quibbler and had hired Ginny as part of the staff. Hermione joined the Unspeakables at the Ministry and Neville took up a post at St. Mungo's as a Healer in training.

Each anniversary of their marriage, Ron would treat Luna like a queen for the whole week before and after. Their anniversary was tomorrow, and that was adding to the unrest in Luna's heart. Had something happened? Would he be back in time? What if he decided to leave her? Shaking her head, she focused her thoughts on their first anniversary, they had just moved into the house they lived in now with the help of a loan from Gringotts. Though he had friends and family who would have given them money to help them along, they would have felt awkward with that kind of help.

_((Flashback))_

_It was dark and quite stormy, normal for the beginning of May. Their anniversary would be tomorrow, the 4__th__, and they decided to stay up all night in front of the fire, playing a few games of Wizards Chess and a bottle of wine. There were five minutes left until their official anniversary, so Ron excused himself to gather his gifts for his wife. As he left the room, Luna simply summoned hers. She giggled softly, so many years with Harry and Hermione had Ron thinking like a muggle some days. He returned holding two boxes, one with little holes and a big red bow, and another wrapped in shiny paper. _

_As Ron tore through his presents, his eyes gleamed at the self updating family tree book. It had both of their lines five hundred years into the past, and it would go on for as long as their lines continued. She had also gotten him a clock like his mother had, detailing where their family would be at all times. He made a joke about never getting away with anything anymore, to which she lightly smacked his arm and asked for her presents. _

_First was the box with holes, she opened it up and saw a little black and white Shiba Inu puppy asleep inside. It had a little bow around its neck that glowed with the words "Happy Anniversary Love" and a little collar with a bell under the bow ribbon. She picked up the puppy and cuddled it, giggling when Ron said that he wanted to name it Snorknack. _

_He handed her the second box, after she had laid the puppy down, and watched with baited breath as she opened it. She removed the wrapping and saw two ribbons intertwining, both with the dual colors of their respective school houses, drawn on the lid of the box. She pulled the lid back on its hinges and looked quizzically, inside was twenty square pieces with either little stubs sticking out or outlines of stubs that should go there. _

"_These are puzzle pieces. Hermione and Harry have a lot of those around their house for little Teddy to play with. You move them like this and put them together," He explained as he showed her how to connect them together, "They make a picture, the straight edges are the outside, you have to figure out how they go together. Each year for our anniversary, I'm going to give you twenty plus the number of years we've been together until you can piece it all together. I will tell you that, this year, these are all the edge pieces; also when you tap the center of the swirls on top of the lid, it'll become something for you to house the completed pieces in without breaking the progress." She got to work on putting them together in what she believed was the right order and tapped the box to put them up. The kissed as the clock chimed one._

_((End Flashback))_

It was storming tonight too, their ten year anniversary would begin in two minutes and his hand on the family clock still pointed to Auror business. But, true to his word, every anniversary, she had received twenty with an extra few depending on the number of anniversaries they had together. She slowly got up from the couch and headed over to the mantle of the fireplace where she housed this puzzle. She had every piece of the puzzle assembled except the one piece she would be getting this year, the one that would fit right into the center of the picture where their faces were. The puzzle was of the two of them on their wedding day, they were out by a lake wrapped in each others' arms sharing a kiss under the moonlight. Little fairies were dotted throughout the picture, and the crescent moon was shining brightly. She ran her fingers over the pieces, wrapping her other arm around her middle.

A pop sounded when the chimes rang for midnight and two arms wrapped around her. Panicking slightly, she took deep breaths to calm herself when she realized whose arms they were. Turning around in his arms she murmured that she missed him as she began to cry and hold on to him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her a little tighter, apologizing for making her worry and cry and promising to do his best not to in the future. They both felt a little kick in their midsection when the baby realized he was being squashed. Laughing lightly they parted a little, and shared a soft kiss. He smiled as they pulled apart and presented her with a little box that looked like the one that housed their puzzle.

She opened it and saw that there were twenty plus ten pieces for this year, a little confused she looked up at him. He reached into a pocket in his robes and took out the piece that was missing from the near completed puzzle behind her on the mantle.

"Ronald, I know that's the piece to the one I have, but did I make a mistake? Are these supposed to go together with that one too?"

"I still can't get over you calling me Ronald instead of Ron like everyone else. But then, you aren't like everyone else, are you Luna?" Smiling, he took the box from her hands and set it on the mantle next to the near complete puzzle. He turned her around to face the mantle and put the piece in her hand and wrapped his arms around her again.

"Go on, put it in and finish it, Love." She did as he asked and the puzzle began to glow blue and turned into a photograph with the box turning into a frame. It still had that swirl design on the top portion of the frame. Her mouth formed into a little 'O' as she looked on in wonder as the frame rose up and placed itself high above the fireplace.

"We've been together ten years Luna, and what a ten years they have been. You've given me both a son and a daughter in one go and now we have another little one on the way. Even before we got together you helped me make sense of my life. I didn't know what I was going to do when Voldemort was finally destroyed, and you helped me put my life together much like that puzzle. You helped me map out my future and you have been there with me every step, and I want you to keep helping me put our future together." Taking the box back from the mantle he held it in front of her, "These are the pieces of our future that I want you to shape. These pieces are charmed to take on whatever image you want them to take on, and I can't think of anyone better to hold not only my future, but the future of our children. Will you do me the honor of shaping our future?" She closed the box and her eyes, a few tears had escaped making her momentarily curse her pregnancy. Opening her eyes, she put the box back on the mantle and turned around to wrap her arms around his neck.

"I would love to Ronald, for you and only you." They were wrapped in each other's arms like the picture on the wall, and kissed passionately. There were the pitter patters of little feet as they scrambled into the room, and a shriek of terror that had both adults startled. They looked over to the archway into the hall that led to the bedrooms and saw a little boy and girl staring with fear up at their parents. Worried, Luna and Ron quickly untangled themselves and raced over to the children.

"Are you two alright?" Ron asked, to which they nodded, "Then what happened to make you scream?" They were nervously backing away from their father and trying to hide behind their mother.

"Why are you two hiding from your father?" A confused Luna asked her two five year olds.

"Mama, is Papa bad?" A little girl's voice asked, peeking around her mom's legs to look at her dad. Gob smacked, Ron could only stare at Luna, who looked even more confused.

"Of course he isn't sweetheart, why would you think that?" The little boy then stomped out from behind his mother and stood in between them. Picking up a little hand and pointing angrily at his dad, he scrunched his face up in anger at Luna and asked,

"Then why was Papa trying to eat your face, Mama?"

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_Authors Note: I hope you enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed writing it! =) Thank you so much for reading my work, I truly appreciate it!_

_ooSBGoo_


End file.
